by Bella Falls
He gave me one last peck on the mouth. “Okay, Charli?”
Trying to see through the fog he created but failing, I nodded with a dizzy smile.
“Good,” said Tucker, his tone more business-like than before. “Then let's go back inside and finish the plans. Also, I have something for you.” He left me standing in a daze, and walked back toward the door. When he opened it, the light bathed him in a warm glow, his handsome face waiting for me to comply.
For a second, I remembered exactly how he had gotten me to say yes to his proposal in the first place. That face and those lips were going to be my downfall.
“You comin’?” Tucker managed to make the question sound more like a demand. One last time, I gazed out over the field in front of me full of winking fireflies and wondered which way was the best path to take. With reluctant steps, I trudged inside.
The shouting had dialed down to stern discussions. All eyes turned in my direction as soon as I rejoined the room. Clarice snapped her fingers, and a pixie appeared at my side with another glass of iced tea. The sweet drink could fix a lot of things in life, but I wasn't sure if any of my current situation was one of them.
Tipper moseyed in my direction. He engulfed me in one of his bear-trap hugs, and I tried not to die from lack of oxygen. He whispered in my ear, “You stick to your guns, Charli Bird. Don't let them run roughshod over you. You do whatever's in your heart.”
“Thanks, Uncle Tip.” I wished with all my might that I had half the moxie that my great-uncle possessed. Noticing the absence of his constant companion, I questioned him. “Where's Biddy?”
Mischievous mirth twinkled in his eyes. “Oh, she's flitting about somewhere. No doubt she'll find me when she needs to.”
I took my place between Nana and Matt, each of them holding my hands, forming a wall of solidarity.
My grandmother sat up straight. “I think we can come to some sort of compromise.”
“Yes, I agree that it’s in our best interest,” acquiesced Clarice. “There's no need for further histrionics. We can adjust the menu to all of our liking.” The polite smile from before never reached her lips.
“Including chess pie?” my brother challenged.
My future mother-in-law's left eye twitched. “I still believe that the award-winning coconut cake is the best choice.”
My brother squeezed my hand, but I shook my head at him. Glancing at my fiancé, I nodded. “That's fine, Mrs. Hawthorne. It's just one night.” Time to show Tucker what lengths a good partner should go to.
Clarice finally broke into a genuine smile. “Good then, that’s settled. I guess we’ll finalize the rest of the details later. But for now, we've got something for you that I think you're going to like.”
She clapped her hands twice as if in beckoning and waited. Nothing happened. She did it again, her eyes darting around the room. “What’s wrong with those pixies?”
“I’m not sure, darling. Perhaps you should go upstairs and check on the item yourself.” Hollis rubbed his temple with impatience.
Rolling her eyes, Tucker's mother pushed herself up from her chair and made her way towards the grand staircase. Her high heels clicked on the floor, and we listened to them walk around the hardwood upstairs. A sudden shriek startled all of us, and Clarice clacked her way down the stairs in a desperate huff.
“It's gone,” she cried.
“What is, Mother?” Tucker asked.
“The ring. The ring. It's gone,” screeched Clarice.
“What ring?” pressed Tucker. “Wait, my ring?”
Hollis got up to go to his wife's side. “The family ring, son. Are you sure, Clarice?”
She waved her hands as she spit out her explanation. “It's not in the box. I left it there just this morning, and it's disappeared. And you know it has to be one of those thieving little—”
“Before you accuse anybody of anything,” my Nana warned, “perhaps you should take a better look.” Her eyes flashed to the pixies buzzing around the ceiling in agitation.
Hollis joined his wife upstairs in searching for the vanished piece of jewelry. Nana called out to them from the bottom of the stairs, offering her help. A muffled voice from upstairs insisted that they were fine searching on their own.
“That's because they don't want you to see the skeletons they're hiding inside their closets,” remarked Uncle Tipper with a little too much glee.
My grandmother narrowed her eyes at him. “I don't suppose you know what happened to the ring.” Nana glared at him with suspicion but kept her mouth shut.
When Tucker's parents came back downstairs, his mother looked more disheveled and concerned. “It's not there. It's not anywhere. The Hawthorne diamond is lost,” she bemoaned.
Matt burst out into a low chuckle. And then he placed his hand over his mouth as his outburst morphed into uncontrolled snickers.
“I’m not so sure what you find so funny, young man,” Clarice scolded with a sniff.
“Don't you see?” Matt asked.
“See what?” Tucker's face held no amusement.
My brother pointed at me, then Clarice, and finally at Tucker. “Your future daughter-in-law and your soon-to-be wife. In a situation like this, she's absolutely the one you need.”
“That's right.” Uncle Tipper wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Our Charli girl is the best bird dog in town. If there's somethin’ missing, she can find it.”
Hollis regarded me with doubt, his intense inspection creeping me out. “I’ve heard some people talk about your unusual magic, Charlotte. But I'm not sure this is a time for games.”
“No, Father. She is really good at finding things,” Tucker added, finally coming to my defense. “I think her brother’s right.”
After long, drawn-out moments, Clarice yielded. “How does it work?”
I shrugged. “I don't know exactly. Sometimes it depends on what it is I'm looking for. I'm not very good at finding people. Learned that the hard way playing hide and seek growing up.” I shot a playful glance at my brother. “But for hidden objects, I tend to have a better-than-average percentage of success.”
“And how do we get you to be successful with such an important item?” If Hollis's eyebrows rode any further up his forehead, they would join his receding hairline.
I gulped. “Normally it would help if I could touch the person who owns the lost item.” Holding hands with either of Tucker’s parents ranked as one of the last things I wanted to do. But if it were the only way to succeed, I would endure even Clarice’s frigid contact. I held out my hand in her direction.
Unable to hold back her sneer, she edged away from me ever so slightly. “Not me. I married into this family. And Beulah is Hollis's ancestor. It was her ring.”
I made the few steps to stand in front of my future father-in-law and held out my hand, waiting. With open reluctance, he placed his hand in mine. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, searching for a connection between him and the ring. After a few moments, my heart stopped beating. I felt nothing.
I let him go and didn't dare to look him in the eye. “Nope. No help. Probably too many generations apart.”
“Then how are we going to find the stolen item?” asked Clarice.
“Lost item,” Tipper corrected. “Lost, not stolen necessarily.”
“The lost ring,” Tucker’s mother corrected. “How are we going to find it?”
“Do you have anything that belonged to this Beulah?” I asked Hollis.
His scowl deepened. “Now I have to find something else in order to find the thing that we can't find?”
“Do you have a better plan?” Nana asked.
With another dramatic huff, Clarice stomped upstairs with less pomp and circumstance than before. I joined Tucker, looking for some reassurance.
“I’m so sorry.” I patted his arm.
Genuine concern rested on his face. “It was a family heirloom, passed down the line.”
“How come your mother isn’t wearing it?”
Mrs. Hawthorne came back downstairs, shaking a frilly item in my face. “Here. This was hers, I think.”
I accepted a lace handkerchief with flowers and some initials carefully embroidered on it. A slight odor of lavender and roses still rested in its old threads.
“So did it work?” Mrs. Hawthorne looked at me with disbelief. “Can you find the ring using the handkerchief?”
Crushing the stained lace in my hand, I closed my eyes again and concentrated as hard as possible. I summoned my power from the tip of my head to the bottom of my feet, drawing on all the energy I had to try and find any connection to the engagement ring.
A tiny glimmering sliver wavered in the dark, and I did my best to grab hold of it. But every time I tried to fully connect, it faded. Opening my eyes, I sighed.
“No luck?” Nana stepped in front of Clarice to ward her off.
“I almost had something. But it was too faint of a link.” I drank the iced tea my grandmother held out for me, knowing I needed an energy boost.
Clarice’s polite exterior melted. “Then all is lost? The ring is gone forever? We need to alert the wardens. Aren’t you one of them, Matthew?”
My brother hooked his thumbs through his belt. “I am, Mrs. Hawthorne. But I’m not sure this is a case where the wardens need to get involved yet.”
“Isn't there anything else you have of hers, Mother? Wasn't there a locket that once belonged to her?” Tucker rubbed my back.
“Another piece of jewelry is needed? If I didn't know better, I would think you were trying to rob me.” She shot me an unpleasant look.
I tensed at her words, and Tucker shifted next to me. “Mother,” he warned.
Clarice stomped her way upstairs. In a shorter amount time, she returned and thrust her hand at me. When I opened my palm, she dropped a gold necklace into it, the chain slithering through my fingers. An engraved locket rested in my hand.
“Try this,” she demanded.
Holding the handkerchief in one hand and the locket in the other, I made another attempt. The thin thread shimmered to life stronger and brighter than before. With purposeful intention, I gathered that line of connection and bound it to me. A slight tug on my insides let me know that the binding took.
Opening my eyes again, I nodded. “We're good to go.”
Hollis nodded. “So where is it? Is it in this house?”
I allowed my instincts to pull me forward, searching for that magical attachment. My foot took its first step on the staircase, but my gut tugged at me in the opposite direction. I furled my brow in confusion and tried again.
Taking two steps up the staircase, I tested my magic. Without a doubt, the thread pulled me away from the staircase and toward the front door.
Pixie poop, that didn’t bode well. Shaking my head, I walked back to the group. “I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is I definitely have a lock on the ring.”
“That's good,” exclaimed Tucker. His face brightened.
“Yes and no. Yes, I'm on the trail. No, it’s not in this house.” I cringed and waited for the collective gasp that filled the silence. I wished I were ice so I could melt into the floor or be anyone else who didn't possess the strange magic that I did.
No one else in Honeysuckle Hollow possessed the same talents, which made me special, according to Nana. But from all the lessons of my difficult childhood, I learned that it made me more of a freak than somebody extraordinary.
“So go out there and find it,” demanded Tucker’s mother, her voice reaching a pitch that made the pixies wince. “You go find that ring right now.”
“It's late, Clarice.” My grandmother stood grasped my hand. “Perhaps since she has the connection she needs, she can continue the pursuit tomorrow. For now, let us be thankful that her special skills will help in the matter.”
“Wait a minute,” interrupted Uncle Tipper. “I think we should work out a deal.”
“What?” I stared at my crazy great-uncle, who pointed his knobby finger at me.
“If we didn't have Charli here to go bird-doggin’ for your ring, then it might be lost to you forever. But since you do have her, then perhaps there's a compromise to be brought to the table.”
Matt nodded his head, chiming in. “I think Uncle Tipper is right. If Charli finds the ring, then she deserves to have something that she wants in return.”
I waved my hands in front of me. “I’m not asking for anything,” I insisted.
Hollis considered the proposal. “No, I think it's a worthy proposal, and I’m not above negotiations. What is it that you would really like for your engagement party, Charlotte?”
Uncle Tipper leaned into me. “Remember what I said.”
After using my magic to find that connection and binding wherever that ring was to me, exhaustion had crept into my body. I needed a break from it all, and the only way to get that timeout seemed to be to play along. “I guess I'll say this. Whether I find the ring or not, Mrs. Hawthorne, I would really like to include some chess pie for dessert at the engagement party. Now I'm not saying you can’t have the coconut cake, but I think we can serve both, can't we?”
“We’re back to this again? Fine. You can have your chess pie.” The way the woman uttered the name of the pie made it sound like it would be made out of unicorn manure, but I didn't care. With the night's activities ended, I made my way toward the exit, trying not to sway on my feet.
Uncle Tipper opened the front door wide for me. He brushed his finger against the tip of my nose. “Well done, my darlin’.”
After exchanging polite goodbyes with Tucker’s family, my kin and I left. Tipper whistled into the night, and Biddy flew down from a nearby tree, lighting on his shoulder again.
Nana sighed. “And where has she been?”
He scratched the crow’s head. “Oh, here and there and everywhere. I can't always keep track of where my bird goes. Good luck in your search, Charli. May you find what you need in the end.”
If I didn't find the ring, I was pretty sure it definitely would spell my end.
Chapter Three
The next morning, before I finished my first cup of coffee, Nana plunked a plate full of food in front of me.
I stared at the mound of pancakes dripping with syrup, the stack of greasy bacon on the side, the extra plate of sticky cinnamon buns with runny icing, eggs sunny side up, and a bowl of steaming grits with pats of butter melting in the middle. “This could feed an army, Nana.”
“You’ll need it to give you the energy you need today. Make sure that you stop to eat along the way as well. No need to test your reserves or put yourself at risk.” She placed a glass of orange juice next to the cup of coffee.
No one quite understood how my abilities worked, but it definitely burned through my energy stores fast once engaged. Since no one else in town nor in the next magic district near us, or heck, any of the magic communities that I knew of, had someone else with the same magical talent as me, it was hard to explain how things worked. The best analogy given to me by my dad was to liken it to casting out a fishing line.
Except he’d always had it backwards. My magic acted more like the fish that I specifically wanted would throw the line to attract me. Instead of me reeling in the fish, whatever I searched for drew me toward it until I found the desired object.
When I was little, Matt used to play with me, testing how I could find things. His games had started off small, like finding stuffed animals or dolls. However, as I’d figured all of the do's and don'ts of my magic, his games grew more difficult, his hiding places becoming more secretive.
For an older brother, he’d spent more time than an annoying little sister deserved. Looking back on it now, I recognized that he’d known exactly what he was doing
, ultimately helping me to develop as far as I could go without any other mentor. I really had him to thank for any abilities I possessed.
Nana sat down on the opposite end of the table. “So what’s the plan?”
I scarfed down a mixed bite of pancake and egg dipped in buttery grits. “I think I need to start at the last place we know the ring was.”
My grandmother tapped the side of her coffee mug. “Want me to come with you?” Clearly, she sensed my discomfort in the beginnings of my plan.
“As much as I would love to say yes,” I managed through a full mouth, “I think I’d better do this on my own.”
After taking a couple of sips of coffee, Nana stared me down. “Don’t feel as if you have to prove anything to that family. They should be just as proud for Tucker to marry you as they seem to be demanding of us.” She banged the cup on the table, and her ornery cat Loki darted out from underneath, the hair on his tail standing out all fuzzy like a bristle brush.
With my belly fit to burst, I returned to the Hawthorne house. Knocking on the door, I hoped for, but didn't expect, a warm welcome. When Tucker answered, relief washed away my hesitance.
He swept me into an embrace, but I pushed him away before he could kiss me silly.
“So, where do you think the ring is?” He got down to business fast.
“I have no idea. It’s somewhere in town, that much I know. At least, I swear I felt the connection tugging me in that direction. However, starting here is the best place to get it right. That way, I can follow its exact route to wherever it went.”
He took my hand in his. “Well, it hasn't left Honeysuckle Hollow yet. Hopefully, you'll find it soon, and Mother can stop having a conniption fit. By the way, she wants you to keep this as quiet as possible.”
My mouth dropped open. “You mean, I can’t even ask anyone if they’ve seen the ring? You do realize that may slow me down, and make this even harder, right?”